NewsHero (beta) Weekend Update Issue 6
November 9, 2019
Momorie faces a stigma and an uncertain future. Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville/IRIN
Welcome to the latest edition of NewsHero (beta), November 16, 2019.
NewsHero stories are the result of scanning the entire field of news platforms that cover the spectrum from left to right.
We are always on the lookout, not just for facts and the truth—we are on the lookout for the heroes. When we say there are more heroes in the world than those causing harm, we believe it. You’ll see it in our headlines, our coverage, our editorials and cartoons.
We give you what you need to keep you in the know, but NewsHero readers are always invited to continue the investigation by following our many links to sources into further detail.
Weekly Brief
US, Impeachment, The White House
As impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump went public on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor was called as a witness. During his testimony Taylor revealed that one of his aides had been with Ambassador Gordon Sondland as he spoke on the phone with President Trump on July 26, the day after Trump’s call with President Zelensky of Ukraine that sparked the initial impeachment probe. Taylor says his aide heard Trump ask about “the investigations,” and that Sondland replied that Ukraine was ready to proceed. Sondland then reportedly told Taylor's aide that Trump cared greatly about the investigation of Joe Biden and his son’s business dealings. President Trump denies having that July 26 call, and says he has in fact been too busy to watch any of the televised impeachment hearings. The AP reports that a second U.S. official has come forward and confirmed that he heard the call.
A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says that Trump adviser Stephen Miller emailed a former Breitbart writer more than 900 times with attempts to insert a white nationalist agenda into coverage of the 2016 election. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) launched a petition this week calling for Miller’s resignation, claiming the report proves he is a “white nationalist” and the “architect" of what she described as Trump’s “mass human rights abuses at the border.”
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) asked for consent to pass a resolution that would provide “official recognition and remembrance” of the Ottoman Empire's genocide against the Armenian people. “The United States foreign policy must reflect an honest accounting of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide,” he said. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blocked the resolution on Wednesday, saying that senators shouldn’t “sugarcoat history or try to rewrite it.” Graham’s objection came hours after he took part in a White House meeting with President Trump, President Erdoğan of Turkey and a group of GOP senators.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday let stand an earlier ruling that President Trump’s accounting firm must turn over eight years of his financial records to Congress. It’s another loss in Trump’s vow to fight “all” subpoenas from Congress. The president will now appeal to the Supreme Court, a battle that will likely become another major case over separation of powers.
Finally, a jury on Friday found Roger Stone, Trump's longtime informal advisor, guilty of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction as it related to the Russia probe.
Health, Around The World
Kargbo and team risk their health and estrangement from their community. Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville/IRIN
Sierra Leone has been officially declared free of Ebola after a year and a half fighting the world’s deadliest outbreak of the disease. While most people celebrate the news, the end of Ebola means challenges for up to 1,400 burial workers who risked their lives to help stop the epidemic. Facing stigma for their work, many have been kicked out of their homes by landlords, with others shunned by family and friends afraid of contracting the virus. When the outbreak began, 23-year-old student Tamba Momorie dropped everything to join one of the Red Cross’s Safe and Dignified Burial (SDB) teams. His mother kicked him out their home less than two weeks later and he says he still hasn’t been accepted back because his family disapproves of his work. According to The New Humanitarian, the United Nations Development Programme and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) are planning to launch a 12-month reintegration program, in addition to the housing and counseling that they have been providing, and are "initially targeting 800 frontline Ebola workers, to help ease their transition back into everyday life."
A business owner in Thailand has started selling a product called Star Bugs, a snack consisting of fried crickets. While not everyone is jumping at the chance to eat insects, Paijit Sangchai says selling cricket-based food allows him to create income for farmers and also help address micronutrient deficiencies. Insects are a high protein resource, while being low on carbohydrates. Star Bugs is a member of the Asian Food and Feed Insect Association, a group founded in 2016 promoting insects as an alternative protein source to fight malnutrition. Apart from protein, insects like crickets reportedly also contain zinc and iron, as well as calcium and phosphorus for bone growth.
Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced they have negotiated an almost 70% price reduction for a drug that helps prevent TB, South Africa’s deadliest disease. The drug, set to be available next year, could cost less than $15.
Programs supported by the Global Fund that include special bed nets with insecticide, and ACT, a powerful medication that eliminates the malaria parasite from the human bloodstream, have contributed to a major decline in deaths from malaria, according to a story posted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Online Life, Data and Social Media
Referred to as influencer scientists, scores of specialists in their designated fields are growing followers as fact-checkers on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, helping to debunk misinformation that can often have dangerous consequences.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the DEA to get documents that explain how the U.S. government is using facial recognition technology. The lawsuit comes after the government denied the ACLU’s request for information about how it is currently using the technology and how it plans to use it in the future.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has approved a data protection law that complies with EU legal standards as it looks to grow investment in its information technology sector. The East African nation has attracted foreign firms with innovations but **previously** the lack of safeguards in handling personal data has held it back from its full potential, officials say.
Facebook on Wednesday issued its latest report on the removal of harmful content. The company said it removed more than 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September, and removed 11.4 million pieces of hate speech in the same six-month period. User posts removed violated the company’s terms of service regarding issues like child pornography, drug sales and terrorism. Millions of harmful posts were reportedly also removed from Instagram.
Immigration
A migrant girl in U.S. government custody holds a card that says, in Spanish, “It doesn’t matter where you come from, it matters where you are going,” during a lesson on reproductive health and self-esteem in Lake Worth, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
A federal lawsuit backed by the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center says South Carolina unconstitutionally suspends the drivers' licenses of people who haven't paid traffic tickets without first determining if they can afford to pay. The suit is part of a broader campaign by civil rights groups to dismantle practices that effectively penalize, and sometimes criminalize, poverty.
According to UN researchers, the U.S. has detained more children away from their parents than any other country as new government data released this month shows. The U.S. held a record number of migrant children in custody in 2019, an unprecedented 69,550.** That’s more children detained away from their parents than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. Some of the migrant children have already been deported, while some have reunited with family in the U.S. About 4,000 are still in government custody, some in large, impersonal shelters, with more arriving every week.
When thousands of migrant children ended up stranded in U.S. Border Patrol stations last spring, the Trump administration described the crisis as an unexpected result of the record flow of migrants flooding the immigration system. But the backup was also a result of policy decisions that focused specifically on children, and authorities reportedly knew the tactics would clog Border Patrol facilities and crowd bed space, according to The Washington Post.
California recently became the first state to ban privately run immigrant detention centers and private prisons. Now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are soliciting offers on the Federal Business Opportunities website for at least four detention facilities around the state. Democratic state legislators and advocates for immigrants say that ICE’s action is a blatant attempt to circumvent the law in order to continue detaining immigrants in California.
News From Around The World
Upset over last month’s disputed election, protesters in Bolivia took over government offices, as former President Evo Morales has been given political asylum in Mexico in the wake of what he calls a “coup.” Police units in major cities have switched sides and joined anti-government demonstrations, while key presidential allies have resigned and protesters have forced the state broadcaster to halt news programming.
Six Israeli army veterans are taking part in a two-and-a-half-week U.S. tour sponsored by the Breaking the Silence group, an Israeli organization of former combat soldiers dedicated to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Founded in 2004, the group gathers testimonies from soldiers about their experiences serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and arranges tours highlighting what it sees as the injustices of the occupation. Its activities have stirred considerable controversy in Israel, and members of the group have often been denounced by right-wingers as “unpatriotic” and even “traitors” for speaking out against their country.
It appears a cease-fire has been reached between Israel and Gaza militants after more than two days of fighting that started with Israel's targeted killing Tuesday of a senior Islamic Jihad leader. More than 450 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel during the clash, and Israel retaliated with a series of airstrikes. One of those strikes killed eight members of a family in central Gaza, an example of civilian casualties that has drawn criticism over Israel’s combat tactics. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to win back support after failing to form a government following September's general elections.
As President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine hopes to soon begin talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin of putting an end to the war with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, turning to the U.S. for support is proving difficult with the amount of attention in Washington focused on President Trump’s impeachment hearings. “Ukraine would very much like to see a stable political situation in the States,” said Oleksandr Turchynov, the previous Ukrainian president’s national security adviser. The relationship between Kiev and Washington, he added, “is a question of life and death for us.”
In Hong Kong in November 2019. Kin Cheung/AP
Pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong have passed their fifth month and show no signs of letting up. Tensions are escalating as both sides continue to increase activity. There have been clashes on university campuses as student protesters hurl firebombs at police, while authorities say the protesters are getting out of control and are moving “one step closer to terrorism.” Activists are seeking to protect Honk Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.
Paramedics rushed onto the campus of Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California on Thursday to treat the wounded after a student opened fire. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said off-duty personnel were the first to respond to the shooting. A deputy with the Santa Clarita station had dropped off a family member at the school and was driving away when he saw children running. He turned around, the sheriff said. An Inglewood police officer and a Los Angeles Police Department officer, both off duty, also rushed to the scene. Authorities say a 16-year-old suspect with a self-inflicted gunshot wound was taken to the hospital in grave condition. The brief attack left two dead and three wounded.
Teen Activist Sets Sail Again For More Climate Talks
Venice suffers worst floods in 50 years
Greta Thunberg aboard La Vagabonde on Wednesday as the 48-foot catamaran sailed out of Hampton, Va., bound for Spain. Credit: Rob Ostermaier/The Virginian-Pilot/Associated Press
Greta Thunberg has set sail once again across the Atlantic. The 16-year-old Swedish climate activist was aboard a 48-foot catamaran called La Vagabonde that left from Hampton, Virginia on Wednesday morning. Thunberg is sharing a ride with an Australian couple that sails around, documenting their travels on YouTube. La Vagabonde will take about three weeks to reach Spain, where Thunberg hopes to arrive in time for the next round of UN-sponsored climate talks. “I decided to sail to highlight the fact that you can’t live sustainably in today’s society,” Thunberg said on Tuesday. “You have to go to the extreme.”
Thunberg’s inspiring actions addressing climate change are fueling big increases in individuals and businesses choosing to offset their emissions by investing in carbon-reducing projects in developing countries. NGOs and organizations involved in carbon offsetting have seen as much as a fourfold increase in investment from people who want to try to mitigate their carbon footprints. Both large corporations and smaller organizations are reporting spikes in carbon offsetting.
Climate change is already damaging children's health worldwide and could shape the well-being of an entire generation, according to a new report published Wednesday by the British health journal, The Lancet. The report says that if the world continues on its path, a child born today will face a world on average over seven degrees warmer by their 71st birthday, threatening their health at every stage of their lives. “Children are particularly vulnerable to the health risks of a changing climate. Their bodies and immune systems are still developing, leaving them more susceptible to disease and environmental pollutants,” said Dr. Nick Watts, a report co-author and executive director of the Lancet Countdown. “The damage done in early childhood is persistent and pervasive, with health consequences lasting for a lifetime,” Watts said. “Without immediate action from all countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, gains in well-being and life expectancy will be compromised, and climate change will come to define the health of an entire generation.” The report, titled The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, is a collaboration among 120 climate and health experts from 35 institutions around the globe.
A flooded St. Mark's Square is seen on Friday, November 15th, in Venice Italy. Photo: CNN
Italy has declared a state of emergency in Venice after the Italian city was engulfed by six-foot-high water levels, flooding its historic basilica and cutting power to homes. More than 80% of the city, a Unesco world heritage site, was underwater when tides were at their highest. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte described the flooding as “a blow to the heart of our country.” He said the government would act quickly to provide funds and resources.
Veneto regional council, which is located on Venice's Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night, just after it rejected measures to combat climate change. Venice is suffering the worst flooding there in more than 50 years.
Aid groups are rushing to provide support to nearly one million South Sudanese in need of life-saving assistance after abnormally heavy rains that began in July plunged large parts of the country underwater. In one of the worst affected areas, health centers are submerged, communities are crammed together on higher ground, and the water shows no signs of receding. Only small helicopters are currently able to land on the town’s flooded runway.
The European Investment Bank said Thursday that it will stop financing fossil fuel energy projects from the end of 2021 as part of an effort to fight climate change. The decision, which ends fossil fuel funding a year later than initially proposed, follows lengthy negotiations among EU member states, the bank’s shareholders. “We will stop financing fossil fuels and we will launch the most ambitious climate investment strategy of any public financial institution anywhere,” the EIB’s president, Werner Hoyer, said in a statement.
Nigeria Seeks To Keep Pregnant Girls In School
#MeToo Movement continues to make waves globally
Jacinta, 15, was excluded from school after authorities found out she was pregnant. She said her teachers took her to a medical clinic to undergo a pregnancy test. She subsequently gave birth prematurely and the baby did not survive August 5, 2014. Marcus Bleasdale/VII for Human Rights Watch
A Nigerian policy bans the expulsion of girls from schools during and after pregnancy, a move seen as an important step in ending the longstanding discriminatory practice. “Operation Keep Girls in School” has been put into action in Southwest Nigeria’s Ekiti State. Although Nigeria’s Child Rights Act protects the rights of girls to education during and after pregnancy, many continue to face expulsion because of a lack of awareness and no policies in place to ensure their continuation in school.
The majority of Nigeria’s 10.5 million children out of school are girls. Pregnancy can act as a barrier to girls continuing their education, and rely on governments ensuring there are positive policies and regulations that help school-age pregnant girls and young mothers stay in or return to school. Nigeria has a high rate of adolescent pregnancy, with girls between the ages of 15 and 19 accounting for 145 out of every 1,000 births.
Towfiqu Photography/Getty Images
The growing Tunisian #MeToo movement was dealt a blow Wednesday as a politician accused of sexual harassment gained legal immunity when he was sworn in as a new member of the national parliament. Zouheir Makhlouf faces possible charges of sexual harassment and public indecency after a 19-year-old student posted photos on social media allegedly showing him behaving inappropriately in his car outside her high school. The accusation, which Makhlouf has denied, sparked outrage and prompted thousands of Tunisian women to share their experiences of sexual harassment using the hashtag #EnaZeda, which means #MeToo. A private Facebook group, #EnaZeda, set up by the feminist organization Aswat Nissa for victims to recount instances of harassment, now has 21,600 members.
Recent polls show men are distancing themselves from interacting with women in the workplace. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, many men are stepping back from mentoring their female colleagues, which prevents those women from gaining additional knowledge and the promotions that come with it. “Women have a particular challenge in finding mentorship, specifically women of color, and we must be mindful of the unintended impact of a positive movement like the #MeToo movement,” said Twana Harris, a senior human resources consultant with Exude Inc.
A #MeToo movement in sports is gaining momentum thanks to athlete Mary Cain, a record-holding distance runner who joined the Nike Oregon Project as a college freshman in 2013. After three years, Cain left the NOP in ill health, with depression, suicidal thoughts, a host of physical injuries, and a broken spirit. Cain says she suffered years of emotional and physical abuse while training and competing in a system designed by a team of male coaches and endorsed by Nike, with a belief system that she be “thinner, and thinner, and thinner.” Cain described her experience in a video posted by the New York Times. Cain’s coach Alberto Salazar denies her claims and Nike says it will launch a full investigation of the NOP coaching staff.
Fatou Jallow, who at 18 won a beauty pageant sponsored by the Gambian president and run by the Ministry of Education's Gender Department, has come forward saying she was raped by president Yahya Jammeh. Her allegations have sparked a #MeToo movement in the West African country, that has since engulfed other government officials including a deputy secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs. Human Rights Watch says Jallow's mistreatment was part of a pattern of abuse by Jammeh.
The number of sexual harassment claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission spiked nearly 14% last year. The courage to speak up about sexual harassment in the workplace is often also accompanied by worries of job loss and financial stress. Nearly half of employees fear retaliation if they report illegal or unethical behavior at work, according to a recent survey by HR Acuity, a company that helps track internal investigations. And about half of those complaints aren't even investigated by their employers, says HR Acuity CEO Deb Muller.
Yumi Ishikawa, leader and founder of the #KuToo movement, attends a news conference in Tokyo on June 3, 2019. (Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images)
There’s a heated debate in Japan following reports from several local news outlets that said some companies had “banned” eyewear for female employees for various reasons. Among them, some retail chains reportedly said glasses-wearing shop assistants gave a “cold impression.” Kumiko Nemoto, professor of sociology at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, said people in Japan were reacting to the “outdated” policies. She said: “The reasons why women are not supposed to wear glasses...really don't make sense. It's all about gender. It's pretty discriminatory.”
A similar debate emerged when actor and writer Yumi Ishikawa launched a petition calling for Japan to end dress codes after being made to wear high heels while working at a funeral parlor. Supporters tweeted the petition alongside the hashtag #KuToo in solidarity with her cause, mirroring the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse.More than 5,000 boys in Pune, India are participating in a program called Action for Equality (AFE). Launched by the Equal Community Foundation (ECF) in 2011, the AFE program is seeking to educate teenage boys in the fight to end violence against women. “Battling for gender equality is like fighting the current of a rushing river," says Christina Furtado, executive director of ECF. “We've been telling [women], ‘It’s very important for you to fight for your rights.’”
NewsHero Editorial:
We live in an unprecedented time, where social media wields its power and influence over how news is made and portrayed. It can be argued that tweets are (and have been) "news-making," and yet these un-filtered messages require no verification. They seem to have an often out-sized effect, especially when picked up and amplified by adversaries and their bot and troll armies. Today's cartoon is our meditation on what the news might cover if our politicians didn't have available to them these easy means of reaching the masses.
Art by Mark Minnig
Investigation Launched In Death Of White Helmets Co-Founder
Prominent human rights activist James Le Mesurier found dead in Istanbul
James Le Mesurier was hailed as a visionary who gave his everything and whose work directly saved thousands of lives. Photograph: Sofie Gran Aspunvik/PA
James Le Mesurier, a former British soldier who rose to prominence as the co-founder of the White Helmets group that rescued victims of Syria’s civil war, was found dead Monday outside his apartment in Istanbul. Turkish police have opened an investigation. Mayday Rescue, a non-profit organization founded by Le Mesurier, posted a statement asking the media to give his family privacy and to "refrain from unnecessary speculation about the cause of his death until the investigation is completed.”
Three days before his death, the Russian Foreign Ministry publicly accused him of being a British spy with connections to al-Qaeda, the latest claim in an ongoing Russian disinformation campaign.
“James was a real friend, and it’s a big loss,” said Raed Saleh, the lead organizer of the White Helmets. He said that Le Mesurier’s wife had told the organization about his death.
A member of the Syrian White Helmets searches for victims of a Russian airstrike that hit the village of Jaballa on 2 November 2019. Photograph: Abdulazez Ketaz/AFP/Getty
The White Helmets, a first-responder group that trains local volunteers to rescue victims of war, quickly became one of the most visible and lauded organizations of the Syrian conflict. It currently has more than 3,000 volunteers, who rush to the scenes of bombings to try and save the lives of those trapped in the rubble. Funded by donations from Western governments, it provides body armor and medicines, as well as cameras with which regular atrocities are chronicled. The White Helmets have been nominated every year since 2014 for the Nobel peace prize.
Mayday Rescue took volunteers from Syria to southern Turkey for medical and emergency response training, and provided them with equipment and supplied financial support. According to its website, Mayday receives funding from the United Nations and international donors including Britain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and the Qatar Fund for Development.
Le Mesurier is hailed by those who knew him as a visionary who gave his all. His work directly led to thousands of lives being saved. He was made OBE, Member of the Order of the British Empire, in 2016.
Supreme Court Allows Sandy Hook Victims' Families Lawsuit Against Gun Manufacturer
DACA supporters gather outside Supreme Court in defense of the program
The US Capitol lawn is covered with thousands of pairs of empty shoes to memorialize the children killed by gun violence since the Sandy Hook school shooting, in a display organized by the global advocacy group Avaaz in 2018. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Supreme Court
A lawsuit brought by families of Sandy Hook victims against Remington Arms Co., the manufacturer of the semi-automatic rifle that was used in the 2012 mass shooting, will not be stopped by the Supreme Court. The Court decided not to take up an appeal by Remington. The victims' families are “grateful” for the Supreme Court's decision, attorneys for the families said in a statement, calling Remington's appeal the company's “latest attempt to avoid accountability.” Depending on the outcome of the case, it could open the door to gun violence victims' families suing gun manufacturers for damages.
Crowds rallied in support of DACA Tuesday outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices heard oral arguments in cases regarding the end of the program. The Supreme Court's conservative majority indicated that it may side with the Trump administration to scrap the Obama-era program that granted temporary protection from deportation to roughly 700,000 young people, commonly known as DREAMers. Brought to the U.S. illegally as children, the DREAMers were allowed to legally work and go to school if they met certain requirements and passed a background check. The program, begun in 2012, is known as DACA; Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Students from Duke University were among those that traveled to gather outside the Supreme Court, including senior Ana Ramirez, a DACA recipient who was born in Ecuador and whose family became undocumented while attempting to get a different kind of visa. Ramirez said was in attendance to fight for her parents, sisters, friends and herself. “I hate the feeling of helplessness, and if there’s anything I can do to feel like I’m contributing to the fight, I will,” she said.
Attorneys for Entertainment Studios founder and CEO Byron Allen engaged in arguments with attorneys for Comcast and U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday debating what to do with Allen's discrimination lawsuit against the nation's largest cable TV and internet service provider. Allen's allies, including U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and the NAACP, say the case could set civil rights plaintiffs back decades if he loses. Comcast says a victory for Allen would unduly make companies vulnerable to a rash of discrimination lawsuits. Allen, who is black, filed his suit against Comcast in 2015, claiming the media conglomerate factored in his race when it decided not to carry Entertainment Studios channels, which would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1866, barring racial discrimination against non-white individuals in contracts.
ICC Puts Congolese 'Terminator' Away For 30 Years
Sierra Leone gets mental health addressed; author donates millions to country's healthcare infrastructure
Imnet Irba, a 25 year old recent school graduate, leads monthly peace trainings in churches and schools in Gedeo zone.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced a former Congolese rebel leader nicknamed "the Terminator" to 30 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bosco Ntaganda was found guilty of 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity in July. The long list of offenses, committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2002 and 2003, included murder, rape, sexual slavery, enlisting child soldiers, persecution, forcible transfer and deportation, pillage and intentionally directing attacks against civilians.
Aid groups have set up more than 2,000 “learning centers” for refugee children 14 and younger inside Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, but providing an education has been a struggle. The classes haven’t reached a third of the roughly 416,000 school-age Rohingya, according to UNICEF, which leads the camps’ education sector. A number of teachers, including Mohammad Balyin, are working to educate refugee children. Balyin was once a headmaster of a government school teaching 1,000 students in Myanmar, now he’s a refugee and determined teacher. UNICEF says it is rolling out a more structured curriculum that mirrors what’s taught in a formal education system, but for now efforts continue with the limited resources available to give refugee children as much of an education as possible.
Ethiopia’s largest regional state is amid protests sparked by apparent friction between security forces and social media activist Jawar Mohammed, who many say played a key role from afar in mobilizing months of widespread demonstrations that led the previous prime minister to resign. Some Ethiopians fear protests could emerge again as long-held grievances are aired after the loosening of repressive controls in a country with scores of ethnic groups. Officials recently expressed disgust with some media outlets that they called unprofessional and too ethnic-centered. Current Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 11 for ending the long stalemate with neighboring Eritrea, but still only enjoys fragmented and diminishing popular support in his own country.
Calling themselves “peace ambassadors,” a group of diverse individuals is leading the way in putting a fractured and traumatized society back together again. It is now more than a year since, according to official estimates, up to one million Gujis and Gedeos were left homeless after ethnic violence broke out in Ethiopia. Reconciliation, despite the deep blood and cultural ties between the two communities, is proving a long and fraught process.
The Philippine government has granted asylum to an Iranian former beauty queen and critic of the Iranian regime after she was stranded for four weeks in an airport. Bahareh Zare Bahari was the subject of an Interpol “red notice” issued by Iran, resulting in her detention on October 17 when she attempted to enter the Philippines. She cited fears that she would be jailed or executed in Iran on politically motivated charges.
Rebecca Esliker is a psychologist at the University of Makeni. She speaks of a “medical war” between modern and traditional medicine.
Sierra Leone is a country that has seen civil war, extreme poverty, and the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, all of which have left scars on the society’s collective psyche. The World Health Organization estimates that ten percent of the seven million Sierra Leoneans have mental health problems. Because of the unknown number of unreported cases, depression, anxiety, or PTSD are likely to be more widespread. For decades, there was only one psychiatrist practicing in the country (now there are two), while spiritual beliefs drive people in need to the shrines of the country’s 45,000 traditional healers. "Providing mental healthcare in this country is a challenge, due to the beliefs of people,” explains Rebecca Esliker, director and only employee at the institute for psychology at the University of Makeni (UniMak) in central Sierra Leone. “I wouldn’t want to blame them. The only thing they know are those traditional healers.” Esliker, who considers there to be a “medical war” between modern medicine and what she calls myths and beliefs, is part of a slow process in bringing mental health aid and awareness to the country.
To help provide the time, attention, and resources needed to effect systemic change in the country, bestselling author and longtime Mental Floss contributor John Green announced that his family is donating a total of $6.5 million over the next five years to the Sierra Leone branch of Partners in Health (PIH), an organization that supplies poor communities with medical resources and works with local governments to establish long-term healthcare infrastructure.
Thanks for reading.
